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Thursday, 24 April 2014

Student Showcase - Giuseppe Candido gets into deep water

Not all jobs in the animation and visual effects business involve making movies. Giuseppe Candido worked hard to polish his demo reel at Animation Apprentice, going through many iterations to take his reel to a professional level. His hard work paid off and he found work in an unusual place: Ceona, a leading offshore oil and gas exploration company.

Ceona needed an animator with all-round digital skills to create and animate 3D representations of their heavy industrial products - a perfect job for an ambitious animator keen to showcase his many digital skills. We asked Giuseppe to tell us how it all went, and what was involved.

Ceona - leaders in offshore oil and gas

Animation Apprentice: You just finished working for the offshore oil and gas exploration company Ceona. What exactly did you do for them??

Giuseppe: When I started to work at Ceona my job title was simply "3D animator". Then, later on, they changed my title to "3D engineering animator". My job was to create 3D animations about the company's offshore pipe-lying systems and installation procedures, all made on the seabed, deep below the surface of the ocean.

Polar Oryx

Animation Apprentice: what software did you use?

Giuseppe - Since I was the only 3D artist within the whole staff, and was the only employee with digital skills, I used a lot of different kinds of software. This worked well for me since I was dealing with the project from the beginning until the end.

So, I used 3DS Max, Autodesk Maya, Adobe Photoshop, After effects, Mudbox and Inventor. I was also dealing with music, soundtracks and sound effects, so I also used some other software for that purpose.

Animation Apprentice: what where the challenges along the way?

Giuseppe: Well, the first challenge was about how to deal with the engineers around me and their knowledge, because I was completely new to that field. I had to deal with the job of learning to manage such a big pipeline alone, and all the changes there were made along the way. I had to do my best to meet tough deadlines, since I was dealing with the whole project by myself. Overall it was not an easy experience, but that was one reason why I really liked it. I enjoyed the challenge, and enjoyed finding ways to improve my work.

Animation Apprentice: what did the company use your work for?

Giuseppe: The company used my work to advertise their new vessel, the Polar Oryx, which is being launched in May, ready to start working in deep water exploration. They used the presentations I created in order to win projects and clients, and also to advertise the Company as much as possible, and promote the product.

Animation Apprentice: what did you learn?

Giuseppe: In a year of work with Ceona-Offshore I was really excited to deal with mechanics and engineering and to learn how all these things work. I have also learned so many technical names, how to deal with a complete pipeline all by myself and even a new way to think a kind of 3D production and animation.